Universal Declaration of Human Rights - Article 5

Article 5.

    * No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

I remember many years ago as a school child first hearing about torture in the context of the Spanish Inquisition. I was horrified! Later, as a middle school and high school student I read books about how the communists tortured people in southeast Asia. Again, I could hardly believe that human beings would do such things. Later, I heard about the School of the Americas, (now called the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation), and could not understand how my government could support torture in other countries, and actually teach the methods of torture. And, finally, the torture memos, the photographs from Abu Graib, and the reports coming out of Guantanamo have shown me that my government definitely has engaged in torture in violation of this human rights declaration, treaties, the Geneva Conventions and more.

A Wikipedia article defines it.  Torture, according to the United Nations Convention Against Torture, is:

...any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him, or a third person, information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in, or incidental to, lawful sanctions.

—UN Convention Against Torture^[1]

Amnesty International works for human rights and justice around the world. Their website has a section on countering terror with justice, in which they call upon the United States government to stop using torture:

COUNTER TERROR WITH JUSTICE

In the name of the "war on terror," the U.S. government has subjected people who have not been charged with or convicted of any crime to:
• Torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment

• Abductions (known as extraordinary rendition), "disappearances," and secret detention

• Illegal and indefinite detention in Guantanamo, Bagram, other U.S. facilities, and secret CIA sites

• Denial of legal rights, including fair trials and habeas corpus--the right to challenge the legality of one's detention

Additionally, the U.S. government has employed companies that have been implicated in cases of killings, torture, and rape, and has failed to adequately investigate and prosecute abuses.

 I am deeply saddened by this participation of my government in such violations of human rights. I feel like a German in the late 1930's, or a Russian in the late 1940's, watching my government act out of control, often in secrecy from its own citizens, refusing to pay attention or to listen to the voices raised against such actions.  I can only hope that our current governmental leaders will take the necessary steps to bring to justice those who authorized, justified and committed torture.